Thoughts on...Stuff

101, like the dalmatians (that was for you, Hope). So, I just had to change my password to get in here, again! I have about six that I use for the various things that I've signed up for, and I'll try them all in different configurations with different user names and even if I do eventually figure it out, the next time I can't remember which one it was that finally did it. Oh, the frustrations of modern life. Right now, I am watching Charlie's Angels and enjoying my last hours of indolence during break. Break was lots of fun, very restful. We got to watch the first two of the Star Wars movies (Episode I and Episode II) and I have already seen 4, 5, and 6, so I am becoming quite the expert. Soon I will be entirely indoctrinated into this closely knit and inconquerable subculture. Once I have unlocked it's secrets I will become the jedi that I was born to be! Also, I shot a rifle for the first time today. Actually, for the first five times. I was extremely averse to trying it, and I'm not sure why. I don't have any problem with guns or hunters or moral issues with it (though, for a hobby, it is a bit expensive, but there are worse). I just don't have good feelings about guns, I guess. But I thought it advantageous to take the experience that life brought me. And, big surprise, I have pretty darn good aim for a first timer. I hit a little can with my very first shot. I think that was very influential in causing me to try the other four shots. Guns are dangerous, though. You have to know what you're doing. Remember that, kids.

So, as so often happens in my goodly group of people, we found ourselves discussing the inimitable conundrum of gender roles in our society and our churches. Just note, everyone, that it was not my fault that this whole thing got started. I was just discussing the group on sexual purity that I taught this summer, and then Jeff went off on how our churches are feminizing young men. You know what the issue is, in my perspective, is that our churches are not really attracting anyone. I am pretty confused about gender roles, but I can clearly see that churches are not attracting men to act as mentors for younger men to teach them how to be men, whatever that means. But there are not a ton of godly women that I've run into recently that I want to be just like. At least, none that I know very well. There are also not a ton of godly teenagers in most of our churches. Who I see, here and in London, and in Australia, is plenty of older women, and some older men. People, if we don't do something soon, the church could just die off.

Okay, I am being facetious to a degree, but am I the only one who's noticed this trend? It's a little hard to establish mentoring programs when the younger generations, by and large, aren't interested. And, on top of that, what on earth is the church supposed to start doing to cultivate the "adventurous, wild heart" of boys. Isn't restraining what our schools and the work force, basically all institutions would be doing the same thing. What is the difference between taming and civilizing young men? I don't know the answers to any of this, quite frankly I am feeling more and more profoundly confused about all this the more we talk about it. I just don't think that there's any one size fits all approach to masculinity or femininity, or pretty much anything, for that matter.

I don't know, volunteers to take a stab at that?

Goodnight,
S.